Catalyst Radio: Grand Rapids DAPL Resistance Fellowship

About Catalyst Radio

Catalyst Radio is the weekly public affairs radio program of Community Media Center, with co-hosts Katie Gordon, Jessica Gladden and Jessica Young. The program is a feature of WYCE and The Rapidian and includes interviews with organizations and people working on social change and community support, examines media and free speech issues, and takes a look at the behind-the-scenes of Rapidian reporting. You can catch it on air at noon every Friday on WYCE 88.1 FM or streaming on the Grand Rapids Community Media Center Website.

In this interview, we cover a local perspective on a global movement. Over this past year, tribes throughout the U.S. and world have come together in Standing Rock, North Dakota, to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's efforts to halt the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Citing environmental concerns and sovereignty as motivations to resist the Pipeline, #NoDAPL has become a movement that encouraged people take action in our own city as well.

As a way to connect our community to the national resistance movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), Colby Roanhorse started a group called the Grand Rapids DAPL Resistance Fellowship. Through the Facebook group, the members sought to educate, promote awareness, and mobilize action in Grand Rapids in solidarity with Standing Rock. Additionally, from November 22-27, a group of nine people - including Roanhorse - traveled to Standing Rock, ND.

In this conversation, Roanhorse shares more about the Pipeline plans and NoDAPL movement, how people can get involved from Grand Rapids, and what he learned and experienced from being in Standing Rock for just under a week.

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